Potential artifacts and control experiments in toxicity tests of nanoplastic and microplastic particles

Published

October 14, 2022

Author(s)

Elijah Petersen, Ana Barrios, Theodore Henry, Monique Johnson, Albert Koelmans, Antonio Montoro Bustos, Joanna Matheson, Matthias Roesslein, Jian Zhao, Baoshan Xing

Abstract

To fully understand the potential ecological and human health risks from nanoplastics and microplastics (NMPs) in the environment, it is critical to make accurate measurements. Similar to past research on the toxicology of engineered nanomaterials, a broad range of measurement artifacts and biases are possible when testing their potential toxicity. Therefore, control measurements are needed to assess whether artifacts have occurred, and revisions to the protocol may be needed to eliminate or reduce the artifacts. In this paper, we comprehensively review and suggest control experiments to identify measurement artifacts and biases that can occur while performing NMP toxicity experiments. Incorporation of these control experiments can reduce the likelihood of false positive and false negative results and help elucidate the potential ecological and human health risks of NMPs.

Citation

Environmental Science & Technology

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Petersen, E. , Barrios, A. , Henry, T. , Johnson, M. , Koelmans, A. , Montoro Bustos, A. , Matheson, J. , Roesslein, M. , Zhao, J. and Xing, B. (2022), Potential artifacts and control experiments in toxicity tests of nanoplastic and microplastic particles, Environmental Science & Technology, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=934051 (Accessed October 10, 2025)